Jackass 3D

Tomorrow night I'll be seeing the third installment of this series, and presumably the last if the age of the players is any indication. With Clown College-trained Steve-O cresting 36 and ringmaster Johnny Knoxville turning forty in March, it seems that these fellows are likely to run out of steam quite soon. As actors or reality show stars, the group may have a longer shelf-life, but when it comes to being bucked by bulls or going around loop-the-loops in pocket bikes, their careers may be setting.

One of the interesting things I've noticed in looking through the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes is how split the opinions of the film are. It currently has a 69% fresh rating by the way, fairly good, despite the seemingly niche, cult-like status of the films. To illustrate my point, here are a few of the reviews snippets I scrolled by:

Positive:
"Infantile? You betcha." - Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
"It's gross--and it's fantastic." - Christopher Smith, Bangor Daily News
"It's gleefully immature. It revels in destruction. And it made me laugh a lot, like it always does." - Eric D. Snider, Film.com

Negative:
"It's a disgusting, repellent, sadomasochistic extension of the kind of slapstick that made 'The 3 Stooges' so popular and filled with gross, gruesome pranks that men seem to find hilarious." - Susan Granger
"They're still here, suffering for their art. Now it's our turn." - Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
"Too many of these sequences are merely disgusting." - Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

There's obviously a common thread here: all the critics agree that the film, and the series at large, is immature, disgusting, destructive, and occasionally painful to watch. The difference between these two groups is, clearly, whether or not the films are entertaining. I don't think anyone would say that the Jackass films are the highest brow, nor are they truly "film" in the strictest sense of the word. But entertaining, that's the real sticking point.

Now, I have to say that historically I've enjoyed Jackass and its constituent sketches immensely. I don't pretend that they're enriching or dramatic or even all that well-put-together. The fact of the matter is that they're entertaining and make me laugh, and that's a need of mine that needs to be satiated, just as fine art and high drama and fast-paced action have corresponding needs.

Anyway, from listening and reading various reviews on the subject, it's pretty clear that there are two pretty clear camps that people fall into concerning Jackass:

a) It's gross but it's funny. It's definitely not Shakespeare or even James Cameron, but it's entertaining on some level. Perhaps it is indicative of some new American desire for lowest-common-denominator entertainment, but it's a part of the wave and not its progenitor. The bottom line is that it's low-brow entertainment, and it's entertaining.
b) It's disgusting. It's indicative of and the epitome of low-brow gross-out humor and shows that something is truly wrong with American society that a film like this can be so wildly successful. There is a line, and this movie crosses it.

I have a feeling that I'll enjoy it, having enjoyed all the previous content (save for a couple sketches, especially the ones involving paper cuts). Reality programming is largely hit-or-miss for me; if it has a good hook and entertains me on any level, it's usually pretty easy to get me as a regular viewer. I never would have dreamed that I'd enjoy shows like Teen Mom or Jersey Shore, but a few viewings were enough to get me interested enough in the "characters" to continue watching.

Jackass has elements of this. In seeing the sketches, the pain tolerances, the fears, and the breaking points of the cast are on display. Steve-O does the little painful things that have to do with body modification. Johnny does the big painful stuff that could result in bodily harm. Dunn and Bam are the butts of jokes and have pranks pulled on them. Despite being a primarily sketch-based show and series, each one has a pretty unique personality and character. Of course, the other element is the sketches themselves and the "what'll they think of next" quality of Jackass.

We'll see what camp I fall into after seeing it. And, apparently, what camp Dana's in!